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Originally Posted by Form
I accept every Middle-earth thing Tolkien wrote, but where things contradict, I will always default to the published text...
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So with that on my mind,
this came across my Facebook just now:
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Originally Posted by Long Expected Party, first version
Hobbits had a curious habit in their weddings. They kept it (always officially and very often actually) a dead secret for years who they were going to marry, even when they knew. Then they suddenly went and got married and went off without an address for a week or two (or even longer). When Bilbo had disappeared this is what at first his neighbours thought. 'He has gone and got married. Now who can it be? -- no one else has disappeared, as far as we know.' Even after a year they would have been less surprised if he had come back with a wife.
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Right at the beginning of HoME VI, page 17 in my edition. The passage drops out for the second draft, because it was prompted by Bilbo claiming he would get married; but the second draft hints at it remaining valid when part of the reaction to Bilbo's farewell is "Is he going to get married? Not to anyone here tonight." After that, it doesn't seem to be alluded to again.
But it's not contradicted by anything, either. RotK has Sam being very shy about mentioning his possible wedding to Frodo The line "as I hadn't spoken, she couldn't say so" hints at the secrecy from the first draft, and the way Sam and Rosie arrange the marriage between themselves certainly implies there's no 'seek permission from her father' business going on, which matches the 'curious habit'.
So... in people's view of the "what actually happened" canon,
is this what Hobbit weddings are like? And if not... why not?
hS